“How incredible is it to hear one story after another?” attorney David Griem told The Macomb Daily on Friday. “We’ve heard seven or eight stories from Joe Gentz, and most of them have been repeated by his friend.”

Steve Virgona, Gentz’s longtime friend, reportedly called a Detroit radio show Friday morning and said Gentz told him Bashara ordered Gentz to kill Jane Bashara at gunpoint. Gentz also revealed Jane Bashara’s last words, Virgona said, a published report said.

“Let’s put it this way, he (Gentz) said Bashara pointed a gun at him and said ‘Do it now,’” Virgona said, adding, “Her last words were ‘please don’t do that, please don’t do that.’”

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Bashara told Gentz, “You’re going to do the job or you’re going to die with her,” according to a published report.

Griem incredulously retorted, “How bizarre is it that someone would point a gun at someone’s head and order him to kill someone else?”

Virgona also told a Detroit newspaper Friday that Gentz indicated that Bashara tried to hire a second man to kill his wife, seeking someone to run her over with a vehicle.

“He said Bob wanted to make it look like a hit-and-run accident,” Virgona said, according to the newspaper. “She was supposed to be hit by a car, and it would’ve looked like an accident. I never said yes, I never said no, but I obviously didn’t do it. Joe also told me there was another guy Bob tried to hire to kill Jane, but he turned it down.”

Virgona said on the radio, “Joe’s told me for sure that Bob Bashara offered some other people (money for murder), third parties.”

Griem responded, “There’s a theory in football and life, the best defense is offense.”

Griem contended that Gentz invented his version despite his reported mental drawbacks.

“How smart do you have to be to come up with a story like that?” he said. “You don’t have to be a genius to think up a story like that.”

Gentz, formerly of Warren and St. Clair Shores, is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to do the same for the Jan. 24 strangling death of Jane Bashara, 56, whose body was found the next day in her Mercedes SUV in an east side Detroit alley.

Gentz performed handyman jobs for Bashara, who owns properties.

Bob Bashara has been named as a person of interest in the case but has not been charged.

Gentz’s preliminary examination was scheduled for Friday but adjourned to June 11 in 36th District Court in Detroit to give the state Center for Forensic Psychiatry more time to complete a report on Gentz’s ability to understand the criminal allegations and to assist in his defense.

Virgona told the radio that Gentz has passed the mental tests “with flying colors.”

But Gentz’s attorney, Susan Reed, contradicted that Friday, saying the report isn’t done. She said she was told in court Friday morning the forensic center indicated it needed at least four weeks to finish. It is waiting on “other reports,” she said.

Virgona also said on the radio that Gentz had a brain aneurysm, but Reed said she has never heard that.

Griem threw suspicion onto Virgona, saying he could be among other “persons of interest” connected to the case. Griem noted that Virgona owns a parcel near where Bashara’s body was found.

Virgona in his on-air comments was critical of the Grosse Pointe Park police. He couldn’t believe they released Gentz on Feb. 3 after Gentz walked into the station to confess four days prior.

“That’s something I never understood … I was shocked,” Virgona said.

Virgona said he was with Gentz after his release and “felt like a babysitter for a week.”

The case has garnered high interest as it was revealed Bob Bashara was having an affair and led a secret sex life in Detroit’s S&M underground scene. Bashara has referred to his alleged mistress, Rachel Gillett, as a friend.

In other recent developments, Gillett late last week filed for a personal protection order against Bashara in Wayne County, claiming she was concerned about her safety after Bashara repeatedly tried to contact her in person, on the phone and through text messages in the weeks after the slaying.

Gillett was fired from her job at Wayne State University in Detroit after she left work the day the murder was discovered.

Earlier in April, a Wayne County judge ordered Bashara to submit a handwriting sample as part of the investigation. His signature reportedly was going to be compared to a signature on a greeting card to Gillett among other items.

About the Author

My beat is the courts of Macomb County and general assignment.
Read more of Jameson Cook's court coverage on his blog http://courthousedish.blogspot.com/ Reach the author at jamie.cook@macombdaily.com
or follow Jameson on Twitter: @jamesoncook.